SASE
Following its introduction through the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning (ASCL) act, the Specification of Apprenticeship Standards for England (SASE) was published by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, Department for Education and the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) on 20 January 2011.
The SASE can be found here along with the press release issued by the Minister.
The SASE sets out the minimum requirements to be included in a recognised English Apprenticeship framework and compliance with the SASE will be a statutory requirement of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning (ASCL) Act.
Visit the Apprenticeship Frameworks Online website to view frameworks that meet the SASE requirements.
Roles
There are three key roles involved in ensuring that we have SASE compliant frameworks: proposer; developer and issuing authority:
Proposer
An organisation who has an idea for an Apprenticeship framework but who does not necessarily want to develop one, who is then encouraged to work with the relevant Sector Skills Council (SSC) to develop an appropriate framework
Framework Developer
The organisation who will develop the framework for submission to the Issuing Authority
Issuing Authority (SSC/UKCES commissioned body)
Organisations appointed by the Secretary of State in England to issue Apprenticeship frameworks for a particular sector. The Issuing Authority is responsible for ensuring that only those Apprenticeship frameworks which comply with the SASE are issued as recognised English Apprenticeship frameworks. There is only one Issuing Authority for each sector and they will support framework developers, if they wish to make sure that their frameworks comply with SASE requirements.
Issuing Authorities do not exist until the relevant provisions of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning (ASCL) Act 2009 come into effect. In England this will be on 6th April 2011. As an interim measure and until commencement of the ASCL Act, SSCs and UKCES commissioned bodies will publish frameworks which comply with SASE or SASW. References to the ‘Issuing Authority (SSC/UKCES commissioned body)’ acknowledge the non-statutory interim role of SSCs and UKCES commissioned bodies in publishing frameworks.
The Issuing Authority will issue their SASE compliant frameworks through the web portal managed by UKCES/Alliance of Sector Skills Councils. They are required to notify the Skills Funding Agency and submit a completed list of qualifications within the framework along with an activity cost model. The Agency will then assign the appropriate funding rate for each framework and publish on the Learning Aims Database (LAD).
NAS have agreed with UKCES and SSCs that the funding implementation date will be 4 weeks after the SASE compliant framework has been issued. This will allow the Agency to notify providers of the forthcoming framework and hence prepare for its implementation.
View the latest Q&As »
View the SASE publication (PDF 125kb) »
SASE Implementation
A spreadsheet has been designed to inform you of the transition from the current 'Blueprint compliant' frameworks and the new 'SASE (Specification for Apprenticeship Standards in England) compliant' frameworks.
Find out more about implementation »
View the latest Q&As »
Last Updated: 15/05/2012